Bruno's sentence delayed until May

ALBANY - Sentencing for former Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has been postponed until May 6.

U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe on Wednesday signed an order postponing the sentencing, which was scheduled for March 26.

Defense attorney William Dreyer asked for the delay to allow more time for the defense to gather relevant sentencing materials and make submissions to the court. In the request made Tuesday, Dreyer said the March date didn't allow them enough time to prepare.

Bruno was convicted in December on two felony counts of depriving New York citizens of his honest services as an elected official and using his political office to enrich himself through his business relationship with Loudonville businessman Jared Abbruzzese. The jury acquitted the Brunswick Republican on five counts and deadlocked on another.

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Bruno, 80, could face up to 20 years in federal prison on each conviction.

Sharpe denied the defense's request for acquittal or a new trial. In his decision Wednesday, Sharpe wrote that Bruno's contentions that evidence was insufficient for conviction were without merit. He also dismissed the defense's concerns over the instructions given to the jurors, writing "mere disagreement with the jury instructions is insufficient to warrant a new trial."

In the motion to acquit or grant a new trial, filed in January, Bruno's attorneys questioned the way the court instructed the jury that a con¬flict of interest exists whenever a public official's public duties and private financial interests "clash or appear to clash."

"The Court's jury instructions facilitated this unwarranted expansion by erroneously informing the jury at least twice that it should convict upon a mere finding of the 'appearance of a conflict of interest,' rather than requiring it to find that Mr. Bruno took specific action favoring his private employers because of his consulting interests," defense attorneys wrote.

The defense has been banking on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn all or part of the 28-word section of federal mail and wire fraud law under which Bruno was tried. The Supreme Court heard arguments in December in two cases sur¬rounding the addendum enacted by Congress in 1988. It broadly prohibits elected officials and others from using mail or interstate wire communications as part of a scheme "to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.

A third case slated to be heard on March 1 could have the most bearing on Bruno, Albany Law School professor Daniel Moriarty told The Record in December. Legal counsel to former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling will argue that the "honest services" statute is unconstitutionally vague. If the Supreme Court agrees and strikes it down, Bruno could walk free.